World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, GA

Coke Rewards. They are the codes hidden somewhere on the packaging of Coke products that you accumulate and can trade in for stuff. I don't drink much soda, but I've amassed lots of these points over the time period that Coke Rewards have been offered. My problem is that I don't want the majority of the stuff that I can get by redeeming my points. When I knew I was going to Atlanta and saw that tickets to the World of Coca-Cola were available, I decided to trade in some of my points for a free visit to the soda museum.

I really didn't know what to expect with the World of Coca-Cola. I figured the museum would be a big advertisement for Coke, but advertisements disguised as museums are fun sometimes. The World of Coca-Cola started with a weird animated movie that seemed to have very little to do with soda, besides giant Coke bottles in the background. There was a 4-D movie that was so unpleasant that is seemed like whoever made it went to the Orlando theme parks and took the worst parts of all of our 3d movies and combined them into a horrible eight minute show. There were disappointing exhibits like an example bottling plant that wasn't working and an exhibit about the top-secret Coke recipe that showed you absolutely nothing. The only exhibit that I actually found interesting contained lots of Coke memorabilia. This contained stuff like the actual Coke dispenser that once rode on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

On the way out, they had one final exhibit. It featured kiosks supplying Coke products to sample from each continent. It was very similar to Club Cool at Epcot, only with more flavors. This was by far the best part of the whole museum! Sampling foreign sodas is always fun. Here's the Asian sodas:

 I enjoyed the bright green Melon Frosty flavored Fanta from Thailand.

Europe has some interesting Coke products including the very tasty Kinley (England) and not so tasty Beverly (Italy)...

South America/Mexico:

African soda:

This pine nut flavored soda called Bibo from South Africa was interesting. I wouldn't think that pine nuts would make a popular soda flavor, but it was tasty. I was trying to think of something similar that I could relate it to but it had a pretty unique taste.

Right before you got to the exit, they gave everyone a glass bottle of Coke with special labels from the World of Coca Cola.

After seeing the museum, I realized that I'd be very disappointed if I spent the full $16 admission for the place. Trying all of the foreign Coke products was fun, but the rest of the museum didn't do much for me. It seemed like they spent large amount of money on what potentially could be really nice exhibits, but in the end they came off as sort of anti-climactic advertisements rather than actual informative exhibits. It didn't have to be this way either. Hershey has their chocolate museum in Pennsylvania complete with 4D movies, dark rides, and free chocolate, and I enjoyed that. World of Coca-Cola was free, so it was no loss for me, but I feel bad for the people that actually spent money on this place...

Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles in Atlanta, GA

I spent a weekend in Atlanta and found myself looking for a late dinner around midnight on a Saturday night. I could have taken the easy way out and went to a 24 hour chain like Ihop or find diner, but that would be too easy and boring in a big city like Atlanta. There was bound to be something open that was a bit more interesting. After a quick search on my phone, I found a restaurant called Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles. It was open until 4am, was less than a mile from where I was at the time, and had the interesting gimmick of having a musician's name attached to a restaurant. My late night dinner was decided.

Gladys Knight's was a pretty fancy looking place, although the police officer standing guard near the restaurant entrance was a bit unusual. I wonder if the restaurant had issues with waffle robberies or drunken brawls over waffles at 3am? The menu consisted of chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, as well as other southern foods. I was tempted to get the shrimp and grits for a moment, but then I remembered the restaurant's name. Because of this, I ordered the Midnight Train. As described by the menu, this consisted of four southern fried jumbo chicken wings and one original waffle.

The chicken wings were surprisingly large and the crispy fried batter had nice flavor. The waffle was what I expected with nothing exceptional. I'm not an expert in chicken and waffles, but I've had this dish at several different places now and everyone seems to do it differently. On this particular version of the meal, the chicken and the waffle were pretty much two separate items served together on one plate. I don't know if this is a more traditional version of chicken and waffles, but I've preferred it when the chicken and waffles have a little more cohesion between the two components. I was very indifferent with the Midnight Train from Gladys Knight's. Wasn't bad, but I don't think I'd come bad to get chicken and waffles here again.

Boba Station Food Truck in Hollywood, FL

 

I was in south Florida not too long ago and found myself at the Food Truck Invasion event that happens every Monday at Young Circle in Hollywood. I had already eaten dinner for the evening at the nearby Mauro's Pizza, but I decided to find something for dessert from a food truck. That dessert soon morphed into a glass of boba tea from a truck called Boba Station. 

Boba Station had a nice selection of different types of iced teas, milk teas, and smoothies on the menu. All of the drinks included a choice of boba toppings.

I had a ginger green tea with mango popping boba balls. Out of all the boba tea that I've had in the past, Boba Station was the first to use actual tea. It seems everywhere else I tried uses powdered flavors that seem similar to Kool-Aid. I suppose that isn't a bad thing for all the exotic flavors, but using flavor powder doesn't seem very much like tea either. At the Boba Station truck, actual iced green tea was used in the drink. Real slices of fresh ginger were floating around in the cup giving the tea a nice spicy kick. The mango flavored boba was recommended by the person taking my order as a good flavor combination with the ginger. I have no complaints about my boba tea from this truck!

Metro Espresso Pizza Café in Orlando, FL

Metro Espresso Pizza Cafe is located in a building adjacent to Lake Eola Park in Downtown Orlando. After a recent visit to the park, I decided to try the pizza at this restaurant. We were seated and then proceeded to wait a very long time for drinks, giving our order, and for the food to be finally served. We were there between lunch and dinner, so the place wasn't exactly busy with two other occupied tables in the restaurant. There didn't seem to be a reason for the very long waits between seeing our very distracted server, but eventually our food came.

The pizza here was forgettable. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. The sauce tasted very generic. The crust was thin and the cheese seemed somewhat sparse. The pizza filled my stomach, but it wasn't something I'd seek out again. With a few other restaurants within walking distance that serve pizza that I do enjoy, I don't think I'll be returning here anytime soon...

Taco Bus in Tampa, FL

I've read a bit about the Taco Bus in Tampa. It's number four on Urbanspoon's list of Tampa's Best restaurants and I've heard people talk about going to visit the Taco Bus whenever in Tampa. From what I can gather, the Taco Bus started as a food truck and has grown into several permanent restaurants and trucks all around the Tampa area. Hearing so much about this Mexican food truck, I figured it was about time I give Taco Bus a try. I think I visited the original permanent Taco Bus location on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. It looked like they bought up several old buildings including what appeared to once be a restaurant as well as a motel. Not sure what they actually do with an old motel, but at the center of the complex was the Taco Bus itself. The white bus doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon, but still serves as the kitchen for the restaurant. 

I ordered tacos filled with something new to me. I chose cochinita pibil as my filling, which was described on the menu as shredded pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange, then wrapped in banana leaves and slow roasted in a smoker (based on a 5,000 year old Mayan recipe!). I went with their combination which came with the tacos, rice, and refried beans. The tacos were interesting. They came on corn tortillas with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and lime topping the meat. I wasn't really sure what to expect with the pork, especially since I wasn't even entirely sure what achiote was when ordering (hurray for Wikipedia). Unfortunately, the pork wasn't as flavorful as I was hoping for and was actually sort of bland tasting. It was still nice and tender and the tacos got their flavor from everything else in them.

The food at Taco Bus was alright for what it was. I was expecting a bit more from the cochinita pibil, but in the end it tasted like pretty plain pork. That aside, the tacos were still pretty tasty. What was not alright about Taco Bus was the smell. When we walked up to the bus to order, the air was clear. Once we went to sit down on the outdoor patio though, we got a whiff of a nasty bathroom smell. We figured it must be something outside, so we tried the indoor seating area (closer to the bathrooms) and the smell was unbearable. Once returning outside, we sat as far away from the source of the stench as possible, but it was still there. We debated eating in the car, but settled on dealing with the smell and staying where we were. While there was nothing wrong with the food, I don't think I'd return to this Taco Bus because of the smell. It wasn't exactly an environment that was conducive to eating. The thing is, I have seen no other complaints about the smell written anywhere, whether it be food blogs or review sites. I really do hope I happened to unfortunately arrive at Taco Bus on a day with some bad air...

Which Wich Superior Sandwiches in Lake Mary, FL

I stopped into Which Wich in Lake Mary one afternoon for lunch. This chain once had a location in the Altamonte Mall that was very short lived, and now they have reopened here. According to the Traveler Foodie blog, there's also a Which Wich in the Dr. Phillips area. Other than that, I'm not familiar with any other locations in the area. I found Wich Which had a slightly confusing ordering system until you figure out how it works. They have numbered paper bags hanging on the wall, with each number referring to a different type of meat. Once you pick your bag, you then take a sharpie and check off all the toppings you want on the sandwich. Problems occur if you change your mind and want to uncheck something. Hand the bag over to the cashier, pay, and your bag is passed to the sandwich maker who assembles what your bag says.

I had a turkey sandwich with buffalo sauce, mayonnaise, spinach, tomato, onions, peppers, pickles, and whatever else sounded good. The sandwich did end up being tasty, but I like sandwiches with lots of toppings and I picked out everything I wanted on it. There really wasn't anything exceptional about the sandwich though, and when I'm picking out my sandwich toppings, I think I'd prefer to actually see what I'm choosing. I would choose the Subway model of fast food sandwich making over Which Wich's paper bag model of sandwich making...

Monorail Bar Crawl

So there's this thing that happens just outside Magic Kingdom. It's something that Disney probably doesn't like to admit happens as not to tarnish their perfect family friendly image. This something is known as the Monorail Bar Crawl. Unlike drinking around the world at Epcot, which everyone knows happens, the Monorail Bar Crawl seems a bit less known. It basically involves parking at one of the Magic Kingdom hotels, drinking alcohol at a bar in the initial hotel, then riding the monorail to the next hotel and repeating the process. Although I really don't drink much, I do enjoy wandering around Disney hotels and monorails are one of my favorite forms of mass transit, so I've gone along as designated driver with people doing the Monorail Bar Crawl. The remainder of this post consists of alcoholic beverages that I didn't drink and food that I did eat...

We started at the Polynesian Resort. Once parked, we made our way to the Tambu Lounge, located next to the very popular Ohana. The drink of choice here was the Lapu Lapu. It was a stereotypical tropical drink served in a hollowed out pineapple, complete with paper umbrella.

After Tambu Lounge, we headed to the monorail station and took the ride to the Grand Floridian. The destination here was called Mizner's Lounge. Located right off the huge atrium that makes up the hotel's lobby, the big thrill here was the free bowls of nuts that were brought to every table.

The drink of choice at Mizner's Lounge was the Glowtini. It was basically a martini with an added LED 'icecube.' This allowed you to drink your alcohol in any color you'd like by sticking your fingers in the martini and pressing the button on the cube.

Once the light up martinis were finished at the Grand Floridian, we boarded the monorail once again and rode past the Magic Kingdom and into the Contemporary Resort. Here, we headed to the elevator that goes specifically up to the roof of the hotel to the California Grill. The California Grill normally requires reservations to eat at, but if you go to the desk downstairs and tell them you're going to the bar, they send you right up. Time it right and you'll be up on the roof of the hotel for the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Seeing them from above is my personal favorite way to watch Wishes. Here, the drink of choice is apparently called the Ray-Ray.

As a food blogger, I had to get some food at California Grill. While the majority of the menu at California Grill is rather pricy, their flatbread pizzas are relatively affordable and are enough food for a meal. We ordered a Heirloom Tomato BLT Flatbread and were served the wrong one. Topped with beef, mushrooms, and greens, the heirloom tomatoes were nowhere to be found.

They quickly corrected the mistake and brought out the Heirloom Tomato BLT. This thin flatbread was topped with marinated tomatoes, applewood smoked bacon, chiffonade romaine, and lemon mayonnaise. Getting a pizza topped with a range of colors from the typical to deep purple or yellow is very different. And very tasty.

And that's my experience being a designated driver during a Monorail Bar Crawl. Watching people drink, eating flatbread pizzas at fancy restaurants, and riding monorails. I'd gladly do it again!

Florida Cracker Cafe in St. Augustine, FL

I recently spent an afternoon in St. Augustine and had lunch at a restaurant along St. George Street called Florida Cracker Cafe.

I ordered the Shrimp Po Boy. The sandwich came with two sides, and I picked collard greens and cheesy grits. The sandwich was good, with surprisingly large fried shrimp, lettuce, tomato, onion, and remoulade sauce. My general experience with shrimp po boys normally involves tiny shrimp, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since they are hidden away on a sandwich. The shrimp on this sandwich were quite large, almost taking up the width of the roll if angled correctly. I liked the sandwich, but the sides were disappointing. The cheesy grits were very plain tasting with very little cheesiness. The collards weren't much better, being so salty that I took a few bites and gave up.

Florida Cracker Cafe had okay food. I liked my sandwich but the side items could definitely use some improvement. I did try their homemade potato chips which were another option for a side, and they were very tasty. Perhaps chips would be a better choice than grits or collards as a side if I return.

Captain J's Ocean Deck in Cocoa Beach, FL

It is time for a correction on this blog. Back in 2011, I ate at and wrote about a restaurant that I thought was called Captain J's Ocean Deck in Cocoa Beach. I was wrong. I actually ate next door to Captain J's at a place called Sandbar Sports Grill. On my most recent trip to Cocoa Beach, I realized the error of my ways when I actually ate at the real Captain J's Ocean Deck.

When we were seated, I saw somebody eating their taco salad and I suddenly had a craving for one. I knew what I was ordering before looking at the menu. The taco salad was served in a tostada bowl, filled with lettuce, tomato, black olives, jalapeno slices, cheese, and ground beef. Sour cream was served on the side. The salad was alright for what it was. I've had better taco salads elsewhere, but this served it's purpose of satisfying my taco salad craving. The funny thing was that as I was eating, I heard a few people walk past and mumble about how my salad looked really good, just like I did upon entering the restaurant. Captain J's makes very attractive looking salads...

Timacuan Country Club in Lake Mary, FL

I ended up at the Timacuan Country Club in Lake Mary and decided to get some food there. They had a make your own pasta station set up, so I figured that was the thing to go with. I had the chef make me a plate of penne with shrimp, scallops, peppers, onions, broccoli, and sundried tomatoes all in an alfredo sauce. I think I did a good job selecting items to go into the pasta and the chef did a good job cooking the food because I thought the meal was pretty tasty!

For bread to go with the pasta, the country club offered popovers. This is not a typical type of bread to be served with pasta, but I do enjoy a good popover. They also had a salad bar set up that I tried, but I didn't take a picture. Overall, not bad for a golf course country club!

Hot Krust Panini Kitchen in Orlando, FL

I was invited to try Hot Krust Panini Kitchen for a Social Media Menu Tasting. Hot Krust is located in the Whole Foods shopping center at the intersection of Sand Lake and Turkey Lake Roads. Before trying any of the food, what initially impressed me was all meats are roasted fresh at the restaurant. Hot Krust doesn't use any processed meats or cold cuts in the sandwiches, unlike the majority of the other sandwich shops out there. 

When I arrived at Hot Krust, the meal started with two bowls of soup to try. The first was their soup of the day, a tomato cream soup (left). The second was Hot Krust's signature soup, their Chili Cactus Soup. It was made with cactus, ground beef, diced tomatos, onions, corn, northern beans, and spinach in a spicy broth. The soup had a flavor similar to a chili, but with a consistency more similar to most soups. It was very tasty and the uniqueness of adding cactus to the recipe made it even better.

After the soup, I was able to try two of Hot Krust's sandwiches. The first was the Meat Lover's Paradise. This panini was filled with roasted chicken, turkey, freshly roasted steak, bacon, pesto, tomatoes, red onions, melted jack cheese, and chipotle ranch sauce. It was a good sandwich, but I personally found it to be somewhat of a meat overload.

I also tried the Buffalo Bill Chicken Panini. This had freshly roasted chicken, buffalo sauce, onions, jalapeno peppers, lettuce, provolone cheese, and blue cheese crumbles. This was my favorite of the two sandwiches. Unlike other buffalo chicken sandwiches that I've had elsewhere, this one was actually nice and spicy. The jalapenos added a lot of flavor to the sandwich, and Hot Krust seemed very generous with the rest of the sandwich fillings as well.

The sandwiches were served with waffle fries, although fries may not be the best word since these were baked rather than fried. If I wasn't told that these were baked, I honestly don't think I would have noticed that they weren't fried. I tried the sweet potato and regular potato fries, and I personally preferred the regular fries (I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes).

Hot Krust had some tasty sandwiches. The ingredients that they use seem to be good quality and they appear to care about their food. I'd gladly return to try some more of their paninis next time I'm in the area!

Mauro's Pizza in Hollywood, FL

I was recently in South Florida and stopped for food at Mauro's Pizza in Hollywood. Located downtown, Mauro's was a tiny pizza shop with a few tables outside of the restaurant. All of the tables were full when I walked in, which was a good sign that Mauro's had promising food.

Mauro's seemed to be run by very cranky people. The interior of the restaurant was covered in signs of what their rules are. Cash only. No debit or credit cards. No cash refund or exchange after placing order. No Parm cheese. Then there were the other signs. The ones that got meaner. Signs such as: Price subject to change instantly. What part of NO don't you understand. With all the stated rules, I would be very afraid to find out the employee's reactions if I accidentally broke one of the rules. I suppose asking for Parmesan cheese to top the pizza would be considered a horrible crime...

I ordered two cheese slices. For $2.75 each, the prices weren't bad and I can normally finish two slices with no problem. I wish I noticed the size of a slice on the way in though. The slices at Mauro's were humongous. Each slice was served on two full size paper plates, and the pizza took up pretty much all of the plates. They were equivalent in size, if not larger than the huge slices at Orlando's Lazy Moon. Only unlike Lazy Moon, the pizza here at Mauro's was actually very good! The crust was thin and crispy. The cheese was melted properly and was in good proportion to the tasty sauce. By the time I got through the first slice, I knew I'd have trouble finishing the second. After a bit of a battle, I did manage to get both of the slices down and thoroughly enjoyed them.

Mauro's pizza was really good and was a really good value with the size of the slices. If only the people working there took down all of their angry signs and seemed more friendly. I was actually talking to a few people who live nearby about where I ate afterward and they all agreed that they stopped getting pizza from Mauro's because they felt so unwelcome each time they went there. Regardless of good pizza, scaring away customers never is a good business plan...

Gateway to India in Longwood, FL

There are so many Indian restaurants in the Central Florida area, and I've visited so few of them when compared to other types of foods. Recently, I was able to give one of these Indian restaurants a try when I stopped into Gateway to India in Longwood for lunch. Gateway to India is located along 434 in an old Pizza Hut building. They had a lunch buffet for $10.95, so I went with that. It seemed a little pricy for lunch, but still probably a better value than ordering from the menu. My buffet experience included two plates of food, filled with chicken masala, tandori chicken, various vegetarian dishes, naan, and rice.

I enjoyed all of the food from Gateway to India's buffet. I've been to other Indian restaurants with larger buffets with lower prices for lunch, but the quality of food seemed substandard at some of these other restaurants. Here, the food seemed fresh and everything tasted good. I guess that's a plus of paying a few dollars more for a buffet!

Lucky Dill in St. Petersburg, FL

I was in St. Pete a few weeks ago and was looking to find breakfast somewhere downtown. We were told by a police officer that the only place in the area that would be open on a Sunday morning serving some sort of breakfast was a Starbucks. That was a disappointing answer, but food is food, so we started walking in the direction of the Starbucks. On the very next block, we came across a restaurant that was very much open for breakfast called the Lucky Dill. Most likely a much better choice than Starbucks...

Lucky Dill was a NY Style deli during the day, serving typical deli-type foods like huge pastrami sandwiches. The breakfast menu included several different breakfast meals as well as omelets and sandwiches. I had a meal called the Manhattan Morning. This included two scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, grits, and bacon for just under $5. The breakfast was simple yet good, and definitely much better than one of those pre-packaged breakfast wraps that are served at Starbucks!